Comparison of Small-Group Contingency Management with the Personalized System of Instruction and the Lecture System.

Coldeway, Dan O.; And Others

An experiment compared three methods of instruction in an introductory course in psychology. The first method utilized groups of three students and required that all three students meet the criterion on each unit of material in the course before being allowed to continue on to other units. This system also required that students do all remediation for other members of the groups, giving examinations, scoring examinations, and reporting examination scores to proctors. This group was compared with the standard Keller type course taught during the same quarter and a third lecture course also taught the same quarter. Performance was measured by final examination score and total points accumulated in the course for all three groups. Results indicate that the group and the Keller group did not differ on performance measures but both groups performed better than the lecture group and rated the course more favorably. (Author)